One of the main historical myths of the Russian Empire and the USSR is the myth of pre-Petrine Russia. Allegedly, before the "coming of Peter," our land vegetated in total darkness, savagery and ignorance: barbaric customs, bestial cruelty, backwardness decisively in everything. Say, in Muscovy of the 17th century there was no normal control, no combat-ready army, no fleet, no education, no secular literature, or even mirrors. Don't believe it! This black legend is fictional to prove the "necessity" of the most severe Peter's "reforms" that ravaged and bled our country. In fact, everything attributed to Peter was established in Russia long before this possessed sadist! In his sensational book, a popular historian proves that the 17th century was the true "golden age" of the Russian state - much more developed, rich, free, much closer to Europe than after the damned Peter's "reforms." If not for Peter the Antichrist, if the kingdom of Novomoskovsk had not been destroyed by a bloody fiend, we would now live in a much happier and fairer world.